Sound Shore Communities Sponsor “No-Idling Day”

The Sound Shore communities of Mamaroneck, Larchmont and Rye will come together to stage the area’s first ever “No Idling Day” on Monday, April 23rd.

The initiative is the result of collaboration between the environmental committees of The Villages of Mamaroneck and Larchmont, the Town of Mamaroneck, the City of Rye, and the Green committees at the participating public and private schools.

The goal of the initiative is to raise awareness about the dangers of “idling” cars, or cars that are parked with their motors running. Medical studies show that vehicle exhaust is harmful to human health and increases the risk of cancer, heart and lung disease and asthma, and children with developing lungs are particularly vulnerable. Code for the Villages of Mamaroneck, Larchmont and the City of Rye prohibit idling a vehicle engine longer than three minutes.

“Raising awareness about the dangers of idling can have many positive effects on the community,” said Michaela Zeuss, Co-Chair of the Village of Mamaroneck Committee for the Environment. “Idling vehicles can easily be stolen or cause damage if accidentally engaged, and idling for more than 10 seconds burns more gas than it takes to restart the engine. So reducing idling is beneficial to health, safety and our wallets.”

As part of the initiative, all schools will be circulating a No-Idling pledge for parents to sign, as well as distributing informational literature about the issues surrounding car idling. Schools participating in No Idling Day include the following:

Bellows Elementary School

Daniel Warren Elementary School

Larchmont Avenue School

Murray Avenue School

Mamaroneck Avenue School

Rye Country Day School

Milton School

Osborn School

Midland Ave School

For more information about how your school can participate in No Idling Day, contact Michaela Zeuss at michaela.zeuss@verizon.net.

Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a staff writer on the Education Team for The Journal News/LoHud.com. She joined the paper in 2006, and has covered politics, schools and development issues in all corners of Westchester county. Before that, she worked as a reporter at the Home News Tribune, a Gannett paper in New Jersey, and interned at the New York Daily News as a general assignment reporter. Swapna has two master's degrees: one in journalism from NYU; the other in sociology from the University of Bombay.
Follow her on twitter @SwapnaVenugopal